One of my favorite animals is the fainting goat. I am sure you all have seen them on television as they seem to faint for no apparent reason.

Fainting goats are named for a condition which causes their muscles to go through prolonged contractions when the animals are startled, according to the America Livestock Breeds Conservancy. This can cause the goat fall down but they don’t truly faint. This as reported by PE.com.

If you owned one of these bad boys you would not want someone “kidnapping” them for sure!

Here is a tale about fainting goats, theft and DNA.

We’ve all heard of DNA being used to solve major crimes like murder and rape.

A man from Temecula, California is now facing charges of burglary, animal cruelty and grand theft livestock in connection with the botched abduction of a pair of Tennessee fainting goats. He was caught using DNA evidence.

A security guard at Fallbrook High School stumbled on an intruder in the agriculture department. The man had broken into the school’s barn and duct-taped the legs and snouts of two Tennessee fainting goats.

The man ran away and left the goats, but one of them died from the ordeal. A necropsy later revealed the animal was asphyxiated by the tape.

The goats belonged to a student.

Thank You DNA

At the time, some speculated the goat caper might have been a senior class prank. The security guard could give only a vague description of the intruder and the case went cold.

Fast forward to around December, when investigators received news that a DNA match had been found. DNA evidence lifted from the duct tape pointed to 23-year-old Bryce Zubicki.

It turns out he was stealing for his girlfriend who liked to keep farm animals as pets!

I hope Zubicki takes a good anti-theft class and does plenty of community service.